Teacher: Christopher Ash
Ānāpānassati: Sixteen Ways of Being
Starting on 20 October, for at least eighteen weeks (or, a year if you ask to extend it), on the Sunday afternoons I will teach: ‘Ānāpānassati as a Way of Being Human.” Ānāpānassati can be translated as ‘Mindfulness with Breathing.’ I will integrate the sutta with other suttas about mindfulness of the body and the process of transformation of our wonky way of understanding ourselves.
I suggest that humanity’s greatest present danger is that we don’t understand what it is to be human; and that, in particular, we are radically confused about the nature of human identity.
What kinds of process are involved in the having on an identity. Can we think and say about this from our deepest nature? What is the place of language – thinking and saying – in the process of identity-experience? What is the place of thinking and saying in awakened life? How does language work in relation to sensory perceptions? How can ‘attending with the matrix’ (yonisomanasikāra) help us in transforming our confusion?
In this age more than ever, an age of such grave danger to us all, we need to investigate these questions, for the benefit of all sentience on the planet, so as to learn to conduct our thinking and saying in accordance with our matrix; that is, from the base of, and in harmony with, nature.
This course will not only be an exploration of our humanity, but an exploration of the purpose and power of this ancient meditation practice. I will point out important aspects of human process which are highlighted by the sutta; and we will be able, through the practice of ānāpānassati, to see directly into the nature of identity.
Furthermore, you will learn that the secret to this ‘work’ is to approach it effortlessly. As the Buddha taught in the Cetanākaraṇīya Sutta (‘Intention that Works Sutta’), you don’t need the efforting of ordinary will to learn what freedom is. Once you appreciate the effortless way, it works from there. I will teach ānāpānassati as an effortless but penetrating way of living.
If you put your heart into this study, it will change you. The complication is that realizing our true autonomy is equal to dying to our familiar self. There’s an ascetic side to the work, because “to study the self is to forget the self,” as a medieval Zen teacher said. This happens naturally. Yet, as you will discover, a profound way of being human arises, also naturally, to replace the old familiar personality
I suggest that repeat this course until everyone in the course says that they see their relationship to their mind has actually changed. If it takes eighteen sessions, well and good. If it takes a year, well and good.
The attendance requirement will be flexible, so that you can live your normal human life of family, work, and so on. Recordings will be supplied for those committed to the course.
Contact: christopher (‘at’ symbol) wholebodymindfulness (dotcom), if you aren’t a regular Kalyanamitta attendee and would like to come to these 4:00 PM, Sunday (Sydney time) sessions.
Warm regards,
Christopher.